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Our
Time in Montana

After
Todd had finished his training in the UH-1N at Fort Rucker, Alabama and
Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, he began his first assignment, which just happened
to be in Great Falls, Montana! When I was in New Zealand and found out
that I would eventually be moving to live in Montana I was so excited.
I had seen many movies that had been filmed in Montana and it looked absolutely
gorgeous! I felt that leaving NZ was going to be a lot easier knowing
that I would be in a place that was so similar in landscape to what I
was used to.

WRONG!!
Montana does have absolutely beautiful 'bits'. However the 'bit' where
we lived, wasn't all that picturesque. It was ... FLAT ... to say the
least. I don't think I'd ever seen anything quite that flat in my lifetime
so it took a bit of getting used to.

The
other thing that I wasn't used to was the wind! Boy that place was windy!!
Add to that the cold temperatures during the winter months (and into the
warmer months as well) and it was a place that wasn't quite what I thought
it was going to be.

I'm
not saying I didn't like my time in Great Falls - I really enjoyed it.
The people in Great Falls are really lovely, open, friendly people and
I that made our time there so great. Malmstrom AFB itself is a VERY friendly
base to be assigned to. We lived on base there as we were newly married
and were trying our hardest to save up for a few things. This was a new
experience and one we probably won't do again for our own personal reasons.

I
will be back with photos ... blah, blah, blah! So come on back and check.

Welcome to Glacier National Park in November! Awe inspiring is a way to
describe it - cold is another way. Of course we just happened to go up
there for our honeymoon in the midst of winter, which makes it just that
much MORE cold! But it was truly beautiful. This is just one of the photos
of one of the Lakes that we came across.

Thank goodness for self-timers on cameras. There was absolutely nobody
around - one of the drawbacks/positives about visiting Glacier during
the off-peak season. We stumbled on this place - it was out the back of
nowhere on dirt roads - it was gorgeous!

This is one of my favourite photos from Montana. It was about 9am and
Todd had to go to work (about half a mile away). The car had been on 'defrost'
for about 10 minutes and yet he still had to scrape ice off the windshield.
The icicles on the tree say it all really. IT WAS COLD!!! And it was only
about 20 below that day, a balmy day compared to some we had there.

This
is one of the falls in Great Falls - except it's iced over. This photo
doesn't do it justice. If you could see it close up you would be able
to make out individual streams of water icing over. It's pretty, but again,
it's cold. The thing about Great Falls that astonished me was the bitterly
cold wind that would be ever present during the winter months so not only
did you have to compete with the cold temperatures, but the wind would
make it even more daunting to get up and get to work!

You can just see that Timothy is up to his knees in snow ... at one stage
it was up to his waist - I'm sure if he'd been heavier he would have sunken
deeper into it. It was a nice trip up to Showlo for the day. Kasia and
I chose to stay in the car, on the heated seats for most of the day while
the men played on their snowmobiles!

And
then there's the Montana that's beautiful without snow in sight. We went
camping one weekend with friends and ended up in the "Bob Hope Wilderness"
- I can't recall the correct name for it, but that's what I called it
and ever since giving it that title I can't remember the correct title.
I will look it up one of these days and put the right name on this photo.
We had only had Kiwi for a few months when this photo was taken - he was
still a puppy and was all too eager to jump into the water to fetch every
thing Todd would throw his way.